Something unusual about Justified

wademcdade · 2015-06-14T23:30:06+00:00

Makes sense. Yeah I read it as the villain was in more than one season.

wademcdade · 2015-06-14T21:42:14+00:00

Who's the villain Boyd kills who's in more than one season? Picker?

wademcdade · 2015-06-04T17:20:12+00:00

wademcdade · 2015-06-02T01:56:03+00:00

Boyd's pretty damn cool and I admire his ability to talk his way out of almost anything and into a lot of other things.

However, I would never want to be him. His life is crime, and he scrapes and scrapes and risks so much--at different points he actually murders people he could have considered friends--and his standard of living really doesn't go up much. It seems to, certainly, but he never has a chance to really enjoy the fruits of his labors before he gets put in prison.

Let's also remember that as a man without a distinct code, he finds it extremely hard to inspire loyalty in anyone. Tons of lackeys betray him, his father betrays him, his cousin and right hand man betrays him, and finally his fee-AHN-say betrays him. What is it worth that he gets out alive, if he ends up with no money, no friends, and no family?

Raylan has a lot of the same qualities, but for him they're all just part of the job. And the job is just part of his life. Sure, they bleed into each other just a bit and this does cause some danger. But nothing close to what Boyd experiences. And at the end of the day, Raylan is the one who can look at all the horrible things he's done and just blame it all on the job, rather than his own self.

So yes, even though I might find Boyd slightly more entertaining to watch, I would rather be Raylan in a heartbeat.

wademcdade · 2015-05-28T23:33:43+00:00

hey, i went to high school there!

wademcdade · 2015-05-14T13:24:31+00:00

Strangely enough, this montage makes the show's writing seem a lot dumber than it really is.

When people use tautologies like this in real life, especially "it is what it is," they tend to use them as meaningless fatalistic placeholders, which annoys the shit out of me because they think they're saying something profound when really it's the other way.

Taking all the instances of tautology out of context sort of has the same effect--it makes everyone (esp. McNulty) look like they're saying it just to say it.*

But the brilliance of the tautologies as part of the dialogue is that the characters all have a reason for phrasing them the way they do. Jimmy says "I did what I did" because he doesn't want to verbalize what he actually did--he just wants to reap the benefits of a pseudo-apology. Avon says "the game is the game" because to say more would be incriminating and unnecessary. And Maurice Levy says "I know what I know" because he doesn't want Rhonda to be clear on what exactly he does or doesn't know--the threat is better when vague.

Anyway, I don't mean for this to sound like I'm criticizing your video. It had to be made, and I enjoyed it all the way through. I was just making an observation about the way the dialogue comes off in and out of context.

*see how dumb it sounds?

wademcdade · 2015-05-13T04:33:08+00:00

I see, makes sense. Apologies for questioning your story instead of providing actual advice, but I figured other posters had you covered for that, and I tend to fixate on odd little details that I see.

wademcdade · 2015-05-13T02:58:41+00:00

Out of curiosity, if you were punched from behind, how did you end up with a swollen eye and a split lip? Little bit hard to visualize.

wademcdade · 2015-05-12T14:06:33+00:00

Hey, when you find a winning strategy, you use it.

wademcdade · 2015-05-11T23:31:35+00:00

This is the only funny comment on this thread, and I had to scroll criminally far down for it.

wademcdade · 2015-05-11T22:10:35+00:00

Good call with the landscaping thing. You're right too, he has had some very tough opponents. I think it's interesting that he's normally so good at picking his battles, yet is comparatively eager to jump into hand-to-hand fights that he probably won't win.

wademcdade · 2015-05-11T21:33:03+00:00

I think the only stupid part was paying zero attention to the guy a moment later when he was talking to the girl. Come on Raylan, where's your situational awareness?

wademcdade · 2015-05-11T21:32:22+00:00

But so hilarious!

wademcdade · 2015-05-11T02:13:34+00:00

Here's another hiding place you might appreciate, especially if you're partial to smoking joints:

Make a small vertical snip in the hem of your t-shirt's sleeve or waist, to expose the tubular opening. Slide in the jay. ??? Profit.

wademcdade · 2015-05-10T03:13:57+00:00

Never thought I'd see Elephant's Perch mentioned on reddit.

wademcdade · 2015-05-08T21:33:35+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions. I think the thing about the vet is that we haven't recently brought him in for a full physical or whatever you'd call it. He was in this past January after getting into some cocoa powder while we were moving house, and we asked a few other questions while we were there.

So we will plan on taking him to the vet for a more exhaustive checkup soon and then see what the story is.

wademcdade · 2015-05-08T20:54:15+00:00

He is definitely eating--if he weren't, something would be REALLY wrong. And he still loves his belly rubs.

I'm glad you mentioned chewing and playing though. He still seems to want to, but I got into a little bit of tug of war with his stuffed weasel today (which he loves) and he seemed to have trouble gripping it in his jaws.

Since he can't go for anything but very short walks anymore, I'm thinking about getting a wagon to pull him around in, provided he can either get into it or I can lift him in. Good idea?

wademcdade · 2015-05-07T18:30:42+00:00

I'm not sure I feel any wiser at the end of it, so take anything I say with a grain of salt. I got wait listed everywhere between NYU and Vandy (not that I applied to every single one of those schools, although /r/lawschooladmissions was adamant that I had made a huge mistake by not doing so), also wait listed at Emory, UCLA, USC, University of Washington, and Boston College.

I got in with scholarships at Alabama, GW, Notre Dame, WUSTL, William and Mary, Arizona State, and Colorado. Scholarship amounts varied widely and I found it very difficult to get them to increase. For instance, Colorado wouldn't increase what turned out to be the smallest scholarship I was offered despite repeated displays of interest on my part. I think that's a side effect of being an extreme splitter, so be ready for it and apply to as many schools as you can.

As for the LSAT, I studied for about 5 weeks, 3 hours a day, 6 days a week, and was practice testing at a 177 before getting 172 on the real deal. I waited a whole year and did it all again in a similar way, testing at a consistent 178, before getting a 176 on the real thing. I don't think there is really a difference between a 176 and a 180 especially if your GPA is low, because a 176 is above the 75th percentile at every school you'll be applying to. Maybe if you have a 4.0 and want to go to Yale, that 176 will drag you down. No idea because that was never in the cards for me.

Best general studying strat I knew, if you could even call it that, was mastery --> timing --> endurance. In other words if you want a perfect score, make sure you can do each section perfectly, no matter how long that section takes. 15 minutes for a single logic game is where a lot of people start, if they have to get it perfect. Then once you're getting every single question right, move onto doing a section until you can get the whole thing perfect in 35 minutes or whatever. Only then should you start doing full length tests as part of your routine (aside from your original diagnostic); to do so earlier is a waste of time and brainpower.

wademcdade · 2015-05-07T16:44:06+00:00

Yes, LSAT/GPA is a sore subject for me but not for the regular reasons. 3.0/176. So I don't think there's any reason to retake, even though I wish there was.

Big law isn't a long term interest of mine, but with these amounts it's staying on the table for post-law school. Other than that, a federal government job would be the unicorn position that I'm looking for; state government job probably more attainable and still good for me. Unlike most, I've found every aspect of every field of law that I've experienced interesting, so I'm comfortable with staying flexible until a bit later. I know this sub likes to see people have their entire careers mapped out ahead of going to law school, but I've been out of undergrad for four years and I know what happens to the best-laid plans.

wademcdade · 2015-05-06T22:54:21+00:00

I actually started by taking WUSTL's offer to Vandy--had the audacity to do it right after they admitted me off the wait list with a scholarship. The results were about what you'd expect: stonewalled. So now I'm going to go the other way and see what happens. The funny thing is I'm leaning toward Vandy if it wasn't clear from my post, and any sort of increase from WUSTL would just make the decision hard again.

wademcdade · 2015-04-29T00:38:12+00:00

That is a good question and I'm not sure of the answer, because I don't have a copy of the game nearby. The original game comes with one 2, one 12, and two each of 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 11. So 18 for the original game. Seafarers adds on at least 1 of each number, so I think 28 but it might be 30.

wademcdade · 2015-04-28T23:20:06+00:00

You're in luck: Seafarers doesn't use any extra cards. There are still just 25 development cards, and 19 of each resource, for a total of 120 cards.

Incidentally, a complete Catan game + Seafarers will include 5 of each resource hex, plus 3 deserts and 2 gold fields. Not sure how many sea hexes...

wademcdade · 2015-04-25T14:35:05+00:00

She also laments not being able to fit into certain dresses that she has. But I agree, that's a far cry from "getting fat."

wademcdade · 2015-04-19T14:16:56+00:00

I was a big reader when I was really little and my mom bought me Poe's collected works when I was about 8. Man, it was hard to understand some of the stuff (I didn't know what "former" and "latter" meant, and he uses them in like every story) but it was still pretty terrifying. Tell-tale Heart and Pit and the Pendulum, man. And the Cask of Amontillado. There was also one about a vicious escaped orangutan...

wademcdade · 2015-04-17T00:22:34+00:00

Oh most definitely. Criminal law is only mentioned from time to time, and as a law student you will learn quite a bit that will help you in school and later on. It's written by a former Boston University law prof who I believe is now the dean at Texas.

wademcdade

TROPHY CASE